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<br />- 2 - <br /> <br />TABLE I <br />RIVER MILEAGES(a) <br /> <br />Location <br /> <br />River Mileage Populatior <br /> <br />Gateway <br />Sampling Station US-14 <br />Confluence of Dolores and San Miguel Rivers <br />Uravan, mill and town <br />VCA uranium mill, Naturita <br />Naturita <br />Bedrock <br />Slick Rock, mill and mill community <br />Slick Rock, Burro Mine <br /> <br />34 110 <br />57 <br />67 <br />67-5 1005 <br />67-18 <br />67-22 979 <br />79 20 <br />127 200 <br />130 <br /> <br />(a)Mile zero is taken as the mouth of the Dolores River. A single figure <br />for mileage indicates location on the Dolores River. A two figure mileage <br />indicates location on the San Miguel River and gives first, the distance <br />between the confluence of the Dolores and San Miguel Rivers and mouth of <br />the Dolores, and second, the distance from the particular location to <br />the confluence. <br /> <br />.The liquor from uranium ion exchange is ammonia treated to precipitate vanadium <br />values. At the time of the survey, three separate effluents were being discharged <br />Do the San Miguel River. (1) The liquor stripped of uranium and vanadium values, <br />constituting about 55 percent of the total daily discharge, was being treated to <br />precipitate dissolved radium by the addition of barium salts. It then passed <br />th rough: two small tailings ponds before being discharged to the river. (2) Strip- <br />ped ion exchange eluate, "Yellow cake tails," was being discharged through one <br />small tailings pond into the river. (3) Vanadium precipitation tailings liquor, <br />"red cake tails," was discharged directly to the river. Also, a ditch traversing <br />the hillside above the mill collected seepage from the acid leach area atop the <br />hill and discharged into the river upstream from the effluents. <br /> <br />The Slick Rock mill zoncentrates uranium ores by a particle size separa- <br />tion, acid leach process. Leached solids, consisting of the largest particles <br />passing through the process, are sluiced to a tailings pile some 100 yards <br />from the Dolores River with liquor from which the uranium values have been <br />removed. This sluice water is the only liquid mill effluent. It seeps down <br />through the tailings pile and into land lying adjacent to the Dolores River. <br />Numerous small seeps were seen coming from the river bank close by the tailings <br />pile. Operation of this plant was suspended in January 1962. <br /> <br />WATER USES AND WASTE DISCHARGES <br /> <br />Slick Rock Area <br /> <br />The Burro Mine produces some waste water from underground sources which <br />enters the Dolores River just below the mine. A number of dwellings lie in the <br />